Late Night Encounter
by Alderson47
Summary: Robin and Raven have a nice long chat during the late hours of the night. Please Rate and Review, I'd love to know what you think.
1. Chapter 1

The clock blinked 2:00 in it's usual flashing red color, not bright enough to cause a disturbance but just luminescent enough to cause Raven to roll over in her bed. Despite the fall of the Brotherhood of Evil, villains were still a very large threat to Jump City, and the massive power vacuum that the Brotherhood left behind was still trying to be filled. H.I.V.E Academy students rushed to take the place of the Brotherhood, as did regular criminals and assorted gangs, it was enough to make Raven's head hurt. Raven realized that she wasn't going to get any sleep any time soon so she slowly got out of bed, tangling the sheets and leaving her bed a mess on her way out of her room into the hallway.

Being as it was two in the morning, none of the other Titans were awake at this time. Beast Boy, despite the group being called the Teen titans, was still technically a boy, or at least acted like one, so he was already sound asleep. Cyborg and Starfire were probably the most normal ones on the team so count them out. The only person on the team who could possibly be awake at this time was Robin, even so the Boy Wonder usually tried to keep himself healthy and went to sleep at around 8-9 PM.

Raven ghosted her way to the kitchen, she never worried about waking the others as her flight made her almost inaudible to any of the other inhabitants. She wondered idle thoughts on her way there, "Why do we have such a small kitchen yet such a big tower?" "Robin is the only member of the team who is 100% flightless" and "Why do villains want to destroy the world instead of aiming for personal gain?" She could somewhat find answers to the first two thoughts but the last one bugged her. She put her thoughts aside as she usually did and floated over to one of the cabinets. She rummaged through the extremely unorganized cabinets, filled with junk food and half empty boxes, until she found one of her precious boxes of tea. She was the only Titan who drank tea, Beast Boy and Cyborg both preferred milk, Starfire drank one of her odd alien drinks, and Robin drank coffee.

Raven perked up, she had heard a sound coming from the lower levels of the tower. She sighed and continued sipping her tea, probably a faulty circuit or some other junk. The sound echoed a few more times before Raven reluctantly decided to investigate. She ghosted down the tower, checking each corner for any signs of danger or suspicious activity. She heard nothing out of the ordinary, well aside from the strange sound that was.

As she got closer she heard the sound echo with much more volume, it sounded more clear, more similar to someone hitting something. On her current level is where the training rooms were located, but who would be up this late aside from her? She heard the sound again, a heavy thumping repeated over and over again, and the door to one of the training rooms just slightly ajar.

She peeked into the room very slightly, hiding behind most of the door as to not interrupt whoever might be in the room this late at night.

She spotted Robin in one of the corners, mercilessly hitting a punching bag repeatedly. She kept watching as he just kept slamming his fists into the bag and muttering phrases under his breath, phrases that she was too far away to hear. She, however, could feel his emotions from her current position. She felt a myriad of feelings stem from the Boy Wonder, feelings such as frustration, anger, and determination. She calmly watched him slow down his harassment of the bag as the minutes past. She had taken an interest in the habits of her team, previously she was too new to the team to worry about the individual nuanced habits that every member developed, but now that she had settled in she could afford to be observational.

This led to her discovering things about each Titan that she doubted they themselves knew much about. Things such as Cyborg still being right handed despite both arms being mechanical, Beast Boy favoring modern animals despite prehistoric ones being more advantageous, Starfire preferring earth food over her own food despite her culture, and lastly Robin's secretive nature around the team.

She sighed deeply, almost losing herself in her thoughts again, however this sigh did not go unnoticed by the other Titan.

"Who's there?" Asked Robin in a spooked tone. He glanced around and noticed the door, and the person hovering behind it.

"It's only me." Said Raven shortly, as she opened the door and entered the room. She gently closed the door behind her as she took a seat on one of the nearby benches. "So what's keeping you up, Robin?"

"Nothing much." He responded curtly. "The new villains, and the fact that their abilities are a lot scarier than the previous ones we've fought is one of the reasons." He finished while sitting down nearby.

She felt his emotions spike with her question, ensuring that his statements made afterwards were lies, however she felt no need to press further, if he didn't feel like saying his peace she wouldn't force him to.

"So, Raven, why are you up?" Robin asked innocently enough.

"Just couldn't sleep I guess, these alerts have really been messing with my sleep schedule." Stated Raven as she took another sip of her tea. She stared into Robin's eyes, or at least as far as the mask would let her, trying to glean something from his unmoving countenance. Oftentimes she wondered about certain aspects of her team, however one thing that always came to the forefront of her mind was the color of Robin's eyes. When the team decided to steal his clothing the masks hanging on the rack were seemingly transparent, but the appearance of the mask on his face suggested otherwise. She often would dream about the possibilities, were his eyes a bright, sparkling sky blue? Or perhaps were they a dull, pure white? She could never answer those questions.

Robin stared her directly in her deep, amethyst eyes. He could feel that she wasn't giving him a complete answer. Little to Raven's knowledge, the emotional link between the two worked two ways, of course he couldn't see much as Raven usually kept herself very reserved, he could tell when she had spikes of feeling.

"I'd like the complete answer please." He requested, while continuing to stare into her eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

I'd like the complete answer please."

The words caught Raven off guard, her emotional wall and her ability to make her emotions disappear from her face like actors from a stage fell for a second. She quickly righted herself. "That is the complete answer, Robin." She stated, this time a fair amount more coldly.

"I know you're lying to me Raven, is the truth really that bad?" He responded, somewhat pleading in his tone this time.

"Robin, its two o'clock in the morning, do you really have time for this kind of discussion?" Raven asked.

"Of course I do, you're my teammate and friend, I'll always have time for you." He responded in his normal voice. This statement made Raven's heart short-circuit a bit. She hadn't been prepared for this statement, nor the sheer honesty put into it. She mulled over his words in a half hearted attempt to scour any meaning other than the honesty and care out of his statement. She decided against her better judgement and decided that she would indeed share a few of her issues, in the hopes that his words could provide some semblance of comfort to her troubled mind.

"It's about you." She started. "Robin, I'm worried for you, the arrival of these new criminals has worried me, and with the fact that they keep getting stronger than the villains we've faced before makes me concerned for your safety." She stated with some semblance of concern drifting into her voice. What she had said was true, his lack of special powers made him combatively the weakest member on the team, but that wasn't the real reason she was concerned, but she wasn't ready to say that yet.

Robin shook his head slowly. "Raven, I understand that you, and the rest of the team are worried for my safety, I really do." He took a breath and steeled his expression. "But you can't expect me to just let the rest of you take all the risks and sit back."

Raven looked deeply into the masked eyes of her leader. "Robin, this isn't so much about your physical safety but more so your internal health." She took a breath and began anew. "Robin, we all know you can handle yourself in combat, that much we know and accept, but during the relatively short period in which we've known each other you've had several mental short-circuits." She finished, anticipating his response with a less than positive outlook.

"You're talking about the Slade incident, aren't you." Robin stated coldy while staring into her eyes. She couldn't see his eyes but she could feel them glaring at her, piercing into her soul and seeing into the very depths of her being. She knew he couldn't see that deeply into her mind but that didn't ease the worried feelings that his gaze gave her.

He inhaled deeply, then released his breath in a very loud sigh. "Raven, that was one time, I let my feelings get the better of me and made rash decisions, it won't happen again." He stated.

"That's the problem Robin, we don't know if it'll happen again." She sighed. "We don't know how liable you are to snap like that again, especially with the new threats looming on the horizon we don't know how you'll react if something bad happens." She looked deeply into his masked eyes. "What if something happened to one of us, would you stay calm and focus through the problem?" "Or would you blindly throw yourself into the fray in an attempt to stop the issue through pure force?" She forcefully stated.

Robin visibly recoiled at the statements. He hadn't expected this level of emotion from Raven of all people, nor had he expected her to be so angry at him for his behavior. Most of all, however, he hadn't expected her to have this issue of all things with him.

"Raven..." He began to state.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Don't 'Raven' me Boy Blunder, your tendency to not think things through once your emotions get ahold of you is well known for getting you in trouble, and you know it." "Robin, you think what you're doing is for us, the best for us as a group or for Jump city as a whole, but you're forgetting a pretty damn crucial detail."

"And what would that be?" Asked Robin, slightly afraid of the response he would receive.

"That we care about you Robin." Raven whispered in a low tone, the anger and force in her voice fading away. "Robin, we understand that you have this compulsive desire to see every criminal behind bars, but sometimes that desire can hurt you, hurt us, hurt me." Raven said, gesturing to herself at the end of her statement.

"Raven." Robin stated. Raven sensed a small hint of emotion in his voice, just enough to keep her from saying her next words.

"Raven, I'm sorry that I put you guys through all of that struggle, I really am, and you can trust me when I say that it won't happen again." Robin took a breath before continuing. "Raven, it hurt when I did the whole Slade thing, when I was forced to hurt you all, it really hurt." Robin's expression softened, his gaze wavered while Raven kept her eyes locked on his. "The looks on your faces, the look of betrayal and hurt was too much to take, I don't want to ever see that again." Robin finished.

Raven looked Robin up and down, she could see the shame from the memory manifesting itself in the form of odd movements and the way he just seemed, off. "Robin you don't have to feel that badly about it, it's over and done, plus, I'm here for you." Raven stated, although she whispered the last part.

"Come again?" Robin asked innocently.

"I said we're here for you, that's all." Stated Raven as she collected herself. "Anyways that's what I had to say, what were you going to discuss?" Raven asked politely, she could feel his emotions still, and that he felt as though the conversation was somehow, unfinished.

"Robin, if you have something to say, please say it." Raven pleaded with him.

"Don't worry Raven, it's fine." Robin said softly. "I'm going to head to sleep now, see if I can get some rest."

"Sure thing." Raven responded as she left the room.

Raven sighed as she ghosted her way back to her room, her tea had become cold and she still felt off about the whole encounter. "I wonder what goes through his head sometimes." She thought to herself as she continued drifting down the hallways. Damn Cyborg for making the tower so complicated in structure. She knew it was for defensive reasons but it just got in the way so many times. At least it gave her more time to think.

After a few minutes of wandering the tower she finally found and entered her room. She decided to meditate for a few minutes before going back to bed, in an attempt to calm her mind from the incident earlier. Not a minute later she was deep within her mind.


End file.
